Better Metrics for Measuring Agile Development Success

The term agile was first coined for this in 2001, in the Manifesto for Agile Software Development.  According to the manifesto Twelve Principles of Agile Software, their highest priority is to “Satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.” Which is a good thing, especially in today’s rapidly changing marketplace. Another one of their principles … Read more

Personas, Journey Maps, Service Blueprints, and Innovation

Personas Personas help you specify the context of use by identifying the people who will use your solution, what they will use it for, and under what conditions they will use it. They help you to create a point of view that is based on your target audiences’ needs and insights so you can see … Read more

How True Innovation Happens When Usability Informs Technology at Google

From think with Google, Mobile App Development: How to Create a Useful App: “Our user-centric thinking guided us even as we began developing our app, and taught us how true innovation happens when usability informs technology. This—along with a deep dive into the principles of mobile app design—helped us take the right steps to design and … Read more

What do Product Managers need to know about User Experience?

Let me start with “What do Product Managers need to know about Product Management.” In 1931 at Proctor & Gamble, Neil McElroy wrote a memo that proposed the idea of a “brand man” — an employee to manage a specific product rather than serving a traditional business role. Other organizations adopted brand management and the … Read more

The Role of Information Technology in the Digital Customer Experience Revolution

Information Technology (IT) refers to anything related to computing technology, such as your computer network, hardware and software that connect you to the Internet, and the people that work with these technologies. Many organizations have an IT person or department depending on their needs. As we are at the intersection of the Information Age and … Read more

Making the Complex Simple with Progressive Disclosure

So how do you make the complex simple? How do you accommodate a person’s first-time experience from their familiar routine from their advance experts needs? With progressive disclosure. Progressive disclosure is an interaction design technique to help maintain the focus of a person’s attention by reducing clutter, confusion, and cognitive load by presenting only the … Read more

Death to Features! Long Live Touchpoints – Interactions, Macro-Interactions and Micro-Interactions

As a longtime advocate of Human-Centered Design, I belong to a group of people who have been desperately trying to get folks to stop thinking about features and instead, think about the human interactions with our brand, products and services. Chris Risdon, at Adaptive Path, did a great job of summing this up in his … Read more

Customer-Centric Culture = Employee-Engaged Organization

I recently heard Joseph Jaffe, author of Z.E.R.O.: Zero Paid Media as the New Marketing Model, speak at a conference and discuss the combined forces of accelerated technology disruption, consumer changes, and innovation evolution affect on the marketing world today. Jaffe warned that if the advertising industry does not adapt, it will result in financial … Read more

Learning from Our Customers

I cannot over emphasize the importance of developing prototypes and reviewing them with your target audiences as early and often as possible. Determining, developing and delivering your customer experience is an Outside-in process. Too many companies make the mistake of thinking that they know what is best for their customers. Oftentimes they may think that … Read more

Give the Moment What the Moment Needs

Chris Bryant, at ProductCamp SoCal last year, said “Give the moment what the moment needs” I jotted this down and it really stuck with me.  Cherish yesterday, dream of tomorrow and live for today. This has been a mantra of mine for as long as I can remember. It reminds me not to dwell on … Read more

Outside In

Determining, developing and delivering your customer experience is an Outside-in process. Too many companies make the mistake of thinking that they know what is best for their customers. Oftentimes they may think that by asking their customers for input  they will no longer be perceived as being the expert. As the experience leaders know, these … Read more

The Secret to Success to Creating an Excellent Customer Experience

Whitney Quesenbery, author of Storytelling for User Experience and Global UX, says about The Customer Experience Revolution:  “Van Tyne and Bean explore case studies of some of today’s most successful companies. As they look at their business, marketing and product design, it becomes clear that the secret to success is to put the entire organization … Read more